Bush touts role of principals during visit to KIPP

Updated 8:11 am, Friday, September 21, 2012

Photo: Karen Warren

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Former President George W. Bush stands out in the back row during a group photo Thursday in Mel Dreyer's pre-K class at KIPP Explore Academy before meeting HISD Superintendent Terry Grier and other leaders.

Former President George W. Bush stands out in the back row during a group photo Thursday in Mel Dreyer's pre-K class at KIPP Explore Academy before meeting HISD Superintendent Terry Grier and other leaders.

The seriousness of his subject didn't keep former President George W. Bush from finding reason to laugh with Ashton Drisdale and Mia Ramos in Michele Rodriguez's second-grade class at KIPP Explore Academy.

The seriousness of his subject didn't keep former President George W. Bush from finding reason to laugh with Ashton Drisdale and Mia Ramos in Michele Rodriguez's second-grade class at KIPP Explore Academy.

A new student turned up in an East End second-grade classroom Thursday. He wore a suit and tie and stood about twice as tall as the youngsters around him.

Before he arrived, the students at the KIPP charter school knew him as "a very special visitor." Yet they put him to work.

His first task: Identify the vowel pattern in "Maine." Using a computer touch screen, he dragged the word under a column labeled "ai."

Thankfully for the visitor - former President George W. Bush - he got it right.

The one-time Texas governor made a rare public appearance, touring the KIPP campus and meeting with Houston education leaders to discuss the importance of recruiting and training top-notch principals.

Bush steered clear of the controversy around his signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and Texas' recent announcement that it would seek an exemption from its requirements.

But the 66-year-old, looking tan and trim, doled out advice to students - study hard, exercise, vote - and touted principals as key to improving learning.

At a roundtable discussion that included his former education secretary, Rod Paige, Bush recalled meeting a school leader and questioning his credentials.

"How'd you get to be the principal?" Bush said he asked. The reply: "I was the coach."

Sharing ideas

Through his Dallas-based nonprofit, the George W. Bush Institute, the former president has helped bring together leaders of principal- preparation programs to share ideas with schools across the country. The network, called the Alliance to Reform Education Leadership, includes training programs run by KIPP and Rice University.

Improving the quality of teachers has been a hot-button issue nationwide, but policymakers have focused less on principals.

"You can't have a good school until you have an innovative, well-trained principal," Bush said.

Principals from the Houston Independent School District, KIPP and the YES Prep charter school in the North Forest district agreed during the talk that keys to their success were having mentors to call and, in some cases, a year to shadow a seasoned leader.

Terry Grier, the superintendent of HISD, noted that Texas law gives charter schools more freedom in hiring principals.

Bush, sitting across the table from Grier, leaned forward and posed a challenge. Bush said that as governor he supported a 1995 law that let traditional school systems break free from some state mandates by seeking voter approval to become a "home-rule" charter district.

"If you truly want to be apart from the state," Bush said, "get your school board to hold an election and say, 'We secede.' "

'You can keep learning'

Grier said in an interview later that he was unaware of the law.

"Let's just say, it piqued enough interest for me to find out about it," he said. "Hopefully this legislative session, we can convince some folks to give us some of the flexibility that charters enjoy and make good use of."

David Thompson, a school attorney and former general counsel of the Texas Education Agency, said he doesn't think any districts have sought home rule, mostly because the law doesn't grant them as much freedom as regular charter schools. Those charters don't have to abide by class-size caps, for example, and have an easier time ousting poor-performing teachers.

The conversations were lighter in the classrooms.

Bush told a group of sixth-graders that he's been taking oil painting lessons and is working on a portrait of his Scottish terrier, Barney.

"You can keep learning. That's my point," Bush told the students.

Later came a hardball question from a boy in the back of the room: "Are you a bodybuilder?"

"No," Bush said with a smile. "Can't you tell? I ride mountain bikes."